Problems with MatterControl and CTC Bizer

I'm testing MatterControl and I'm quite impressed how "intelligent" the slicer is in comparison to Makerware. However, some problems occured while using:

1. The prints are off-centered on the bed, in X as well as in Y direction.

2. When pressing "Sleep (Cold Pause)" on the printer, it moves to positive Z at first, then goes into negative X and Y direction while slamming to the front and left of the printer. The print ist ruined then.

This does not surprise me. We do not have a profile for the CTC Bizer, and it has different bed dimensions than the Flashforge. We could create a profile for the Bizer, but we would need the following information:

The physical dimensions of the bed

The distance between the homing position and the front left corner of the bed

You can also try adjusting the print center manually. You can find this setting in Settings > Printer > Print Area > Print Center

We had never tested that function before. I'm not sure what the trouble is, but you can always pause through MatterControl instead. While paused, you can use the Controls page to move the print head away from the print, and cool it down or heat it up. When you hit resume, it will go back to the correct location.

1. The print bed center of the CTC has the coordinates X0 and Y0. This must be set in in the settings.

2. In the Start GCode, when homing the axis (G28), they didn't get calibrated. This must be done using G92 X152 Y75 Z0 A0 B0. If this isn't done, the printer doesn't know where it is, that was the reason why prints were off-centered.

3. When using the Sleep function, the printer goes to X-115 Y-75 Z150. If (default by Mattercontrol), the coordinates X0 and Y0 are the front left of the print bed, it tries to go below these values, resulting in hammering.

However, I usually print via SD Card, then the Connection GCode is not included in the file. As well, the M206 does not seem to work correctly when exported to .x3g. In the RepRap Wiki this command is marked with "???" whether it works with Makerbot. I will check this at the weekend.

Makerware enters the build percentage in the GCode using M73. Is there a way to add this here as well?

The M206 command is not actually sent to the printer, but is intercepted by MatterControl's S3G processor which remembers the information and takes the appropriate action when communicating with the printer using the S3G protocol. This is why you can't really say Makerbot does or does not support that command.

We were able to replicate the SD card issue when printing doing a print entirely with the second extruder, but not with the first extruder. Was this the case for you as well?

I tried this one. When using only the right extruder, the prints are off-centered about 5mm in negative x-direction. When using only the left extruder, they are completely off-centered, as you can see in the pictures. (both printed via SD Card)

I'm also working on the CTC Bizer and trying to figure out how to customize gcode that is generated by MC in order to better support the heated bed. In particular, I'm printing from the SD card and the gcode that is generated to heat up the bed seems to not be supported by the printer.

Is there a way to edit or influence which gcode instructions are generated for a specific printer profile?

I can provide full details on start/end gcodes differences, if needed.

Thank you for the links! I improved the start/end gcodes generated by MC to match more those that Makerbot desktop generates for SD card printing and I'm doing some tests... what is still missing is that MC has a variable that holds the value of the current layer number (i.e. [layer_num]) but not the actual percentage over the total number of layers printed (e.g. like 95% or something similar). Makerbot Desktop has an M73 message that is used to display that... any clue if I can extract this from MatterControl OR if I can find a way to add this output in the source code myself? Thanks!